| “ | What can I say? Some people like vanilla, I like Rocky Road. | „ |
| ~ Lewis Darnell after the police find his violent pornography. |
Lewis Darnell is the main antagonist of the Law & Order episode "Mad Dog". He is a recently paroled serial rapist who is suspected of raping and murdering a teenage girl.
He was portrayed by the late Burt Young, who also portrayed Joe Monaldi in Once Upon a Time in America.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Darnell was raised by his mother after his father was killed in World War II. As an adult, he raped 13 teenage girls; his M.O. was to break into their homes and smother them with their own pillowcases while he raped them, which heightened his sense of power and control. He was finally caught in 1980 and prosecuted by Executive Assistant District Attorney Jack McCoy, whose case against Darnell was so damning that he was sentenced to 30 years in Sing Sing Prison.
Darnell was a model prisoner, working unsupervised and regularly attending therapy. He also nurtured a relationship with his daughter, Janeane, who steadfastly believed in his innocence. He was nevertheless twice denied early release thanks to McCoy's advocacy on behalf of his victims, all of whom wanted their rapist to serve his full sentence. In 1998, however, he was granted release over McCoy's objections.
"Mad Dog"[]
A few months after Darnell's release, a teenage girl named Teresa Perez is raped and murdered two blocks away from the apartment that Darnell grew up in. While murder is not part of Darnell's known M.O., his proximity to the neighborhood and the fact that Perez was smothered to death with a pillowcase convinces McCoy of his guilt. He tells NYPD Homicide Detectives Lennie Briscoe and Rey Curtis to question him. The detectives persuade Darnell's parole officer to detain him while they search Janeane's apartment, where he is living with her and her children, and where they find his collection of sadistic, rape-themed pornography. They and McCoy trick Darnell into leaving an interrogation without permission, a violation of his parole that results in him being imprisoned at Riker's Island.
Darnell's lawyer, James Granick, files a writ of habeus corpus on his behalf, and successfully argues that his detention is illegal and unconstitutional, resulting in Darnell being released back into his daughter's custody. McCoy and Assistant District Attorney Jamie Ross then try to have Darnell civilly committed as a dangerous sex offender. Forensic psychiatrist Elizabeth Olivet diagnoses him as a preferential offender who would rather rape than have consensual sex, while Darnell's own therapist says that he will reoffend without intense treatment. The effort to have Darnell committed fails, however.
McCoy orders Lieutenant Anita Van Buren to put 24-hour surveillance on Darnell, and Briscoe and Curtis out him to his coworkers and neighbors as a rapist, costing him his job. He tries to move out of New York, but McCoy reaches out to the district attorneys of every state he applies to make sure they refuse him. He then tells Darnell is only remaining option is to serve out the rest of his prison term in a work release camp. Darnell angrily refuses and gets into a confrontation with McCoy. Darnell files a restraining order against the D.A.'s office, backed by the ACLU, but a judge orders it lifted, while warning McCoy not to abuse his power.
The investigation takes a turn when a teenage girl who lives in Janeane's apartment building tells Briscoe and Curtis that Darnell had tried to break into her apartment, although there is evidence to suggest that the girl is lying. McCoy tries to have Darnell arrested anyway, but District Attorney Adam Schiff orders him not to. That same day, Janeane walks in on Darnell trying to rape one of her friends and hits him over the head twice with a baseball bat, killing him.
Trivia[]
- Darnell is inspired by child killers and serial rapists Charles Kenneth Anderson and John Albert Taylor.
- It is left ambiguous whether Darnell committed the murder of which he is suspected.
External Links[]
- Lewis Darnell on the Law & Order Wiki
